The insistence on one well structured concept of person as a reference for adjudicating normative claims about the rights and obligations of persons yields only a partial image of man. Grounded in this partial concept, development emphasises the search for felicity in the Hobbesian sense as the source of happiness, personal development, and civilisational progress. The self in this perspective emerges as a broken totality with its deleterious consequences both for self and society. Attempts to mend this broken totality have generally failed because they have tended to reinforce rather than overcome broken totality. As a result, self-assertion as an integral part of the modern concept of development turns out to be destructive both for the self and society.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Berlin, I. (1979). Against the current: Essays in the history of ideas (ed. H. Hardy)London: Hogarth .
2.
Colletti, L. (1972). From Rousseau to Lenin: Studies in ideology and society (J. Merrington and J. White, arans.). New York : Monthly Review Press.
3.
Dobbs, D. (1987). Reckless rationalism and heroic reverence in Homer's Odyssey. American Political Science Review, 81, 491-508.
4.
Fitzgerald, F.S. (1958). Handle with care. In E. Wilson (Ed.), The Crack-up. New York : New Directions.
5.
Heschel, A.J. (1965). Who is man? Stanford: Stanford University Press.
6.
Hirschman, A.O. (1977). The passions and the interests: Political arguments for capitalism before its triumph. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
7.
Hobbes, T. (1950). Leviathan.New York: E.P. Dutton.
8.
Hume, D. (1978). A treatise of human nature (ed. by L.A. Selby-Bigge)(Book 1,Part IV, Section 6)Oxford: Clarendon Press.
9.
James, W. (1890). Principles of psychology. New York: Henry Holt.
10.
Kant, I. (1980). Political writings (ed. by H. Reiss)Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
11.
Madgley, M. (1979). Beast and man: The roots of human nature. London: Methuen.
12.
Mandelbaum, M. (1971). History, man and reason: A study in nineteenth century thought. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.
13.
Maslow, A.H. (1954). Motivation and personality. New York: Harper.
14.
Maslow, A.H. (1962). Toward a psychology of being. Princeton: D. Van Nostrand.
15.
Mead, G.H. (1934). Mind, self and society. Chicago : University of Chicago Press.
16.
Murdoch, I. (1968). Sartre: Romantic rationalist. London: Fontana.
17.
Nudler, O. (1990). Human needs: A sophisticated holistic approach . In K. Lederer (Ed.), Human needs: A contribution to the current debate. Cambridge, Mass: Oelgeschlager, Gunn and Hain.
18.
Reisman, D. (1950). The lonely crowd: A study of the changing American characterNew Haven: Yale University Press.
19.
Rieff, P. (1961). Freud: The mind of the moralist. New York: Anchor.
20.
Rorty, A.O. (1987). Persons as rhetorical categories. Social Research, 54, 55-72.
21.
Roszak, T. (1981). In search of the miraculous. Span, December, 10-13.
22.
Sass, L.A. (1988). The self and its vicissitudes: An archaeological study of the psychoanalytic avant-garde. Social Researh, 55, 551-608.
23.
Schaar, J.H. (1961). Escape from authority: The perspective of Erich Fromm. New York: Basic Books.
24.
Sennet, R. (1977). Destructive gemeinschaft. In N. Birnbaum (Ed.), Beyond the crisis (pp. 171-200). London: Oxford University Press.
25.
Smith, S.B. (1989). Hegelianism and the three crises of rationality . Social Research, 56, 943-974.
26.
Taylor, C. (1979). What is wrong with negative liberty. In A. Ryan (Ed.), The idea of freedom (pp. 175-193). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
27.
Taylor, C. (1981). Growth, legitimacy and the modem identity. Praxis International, 1, 2, 111-125.
28.
Taylor, C. (1983). Social theory as practice. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
29.
Unger, R.M. (1975). Knowledge and politics. New York: Free Press.
30.
Unger, R.M. (1984). Passion: An essay on personality. London: Free Press.
31.
Walzer, M. (1987). Notes on social criticism. Social Research, 54, 33-44.
32.
Wolin, S. (1985). Post-modern politics and the absence of myths . Social Research, 52, 217-240.
33.
Wood, E.M. (1972). Mind and politics: An approach to the meaning of liberal and socialist individualism. Berkeley: University of California Press.
